


Iwa's Eight Man Teams

by witchbreaker



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine, Naruto
Genre: Iwagakure, Meta Analysis, Team Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2020-03-04 21:54:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18821488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/witchbreaker/pseuds/witchbreaker
Summary: Iwagakure doesn't follow the usual three-man formula. I take a look at why and what it means.





	Iwa's Eight Man Teams

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wafflelate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wafflelate/gifts).



During the Grass Chunin Exams Shikako points out that Iwa’s teams are traditionally in sets of eight. This is unusual considering that the maximum for other villages’ Genin teams is three. Sure, teams are sometimes combined to handle big missions, but they don’t operate with that number regularly. A couple other facts makes Iwa’s team size even more interesting:

Iwa and Konoha were the first to start fighting in the Third Shinobi War. 

Iwa was/is using Akatsuki because of a drawdown agreement between the Major Hidden Villages. 

Iwa is the only Major Hidden Village not to replace its Kage during or immediately after the Third Shinobi War. 

The Third Shinobi War went on for years. This would have meant a huge death toll for Iwa who didn’t stop fighting until the very end. Minato is famous for killing a thousand of their troops in one go so they were not immune to devastating losses either. Couple that with fact number two and it is clear that Iwa doesn’t have a lot of manpower. At least, not a significant amount more than the Konoha. 

Shikako talks about Iwa’s team structure like it has always had eight members. If this is the case, then Iwa took a look at Konoha’s successful three-man teams and deliberately made ones almost three times that size. And then they stuck with that for decades. Through changing Kages and population drop. 

The former might not seem to be as important as the latter, but political instability has far reaching consequences. Kiri tore itself apart in a, I would argue two, civil wars and is still trying to heal the wounds a decade later. The Uchiha’s attempted to usurp the Hokage position left a gaping hole in Konoha. The power struggle between the Kazekage and Wind Daimyo encouraged Kazekage Raza to attack another Major Village. Political instability filters downwards, usually, as anger. Paranoia is a close second. These things are not conducive to working together in large groups. One sign of political instability is changing of leadership, which Iwa hasn’t faced in DoS yet.

I’m placing Onoki becoming Tsuchikage before the Third Shinobi War. The timeline, as usual, is a mess but this is the best I can estimate. This means Onoki has been leading Iwa for at least twenty years. It is probably closer to thirty by the current point in DoS. We don’t know much about the history of Iwa, but compared to Konoha Onoki’s leadership has been rock solid. Not only is he still alive, but he hasn’t been forced to resign like the Third Hokage was at the end of the Third Shinobi War. 

One might argue that kids don’t have enough awareness to know what is going on but as Naruto’s childhood has shown, kids don’t need to know the details to pick up on peoples’ hatred. Onoki’s consistent leadership means a consistent leader for kids to look up to and values to learn to emulate. While “not rebelling” is a low bar for a leader to pass, it says something that Onoki is one of the few that hasn’t had an organized resistance to him. Future DoS may prove me wrong but until then his ability to manage his people for this long is impressive. Considering how stubborn Onoki is, I doubt that the Genin Teams will change unless someone replaces him.

So, eight-man teams are the hill that Iwagakure is willing to die on. What does this say about them? The minuses of the team size are obvious. They are not as stealthy, more people on one mission means less for others, and coordination is multiplied by ten. Frankly, if a mission ever goes south as much as Team Seven’s do, then it is unlikely that a Jonin is going to be able to get them all out. If Kakashi ever considered abandoning Konoha rather than deal with three teenagers’ drama, Jonin Instructors in Iwa are probably smoking weed like steam engines just to stay sane. There are issues with it to say the least.

What are the pluses? First is power. Quantity _is_ a quality. More members mean more people to watch your back. Genin are not expected to be facing A Rank foes, which means the slight bump in power that having an extra member, or five, can realistically tip the scales in their favor. More members mean you can have more specialties. The team wouldn’t run the risk of becoming lopsided like smaller teams because eight people specializing in something different will cover a lot more bases. A well-oiled eight-man team could functionally be a Swiss Army Knife of Genin Teams. Not to mention that it allows for easier time flanking. If the quick fight during the Grass Chunin Exams were any indication, standard Iwa tactics rely on converging on your opponents from four different angles. If it wasn’t for the huge power difference between Ino, Choji, Shikako and the Iwa Genin this would actually be a tight spot. 

What do all these traits mean to Iwa culturally? Well, they mean that Iwa values community teamwork and believes that their children’s best chance at survival is not having a single adult watch over them, but to put their trust in the other Genin. Brute power is a valued trait whether it comes from a Zerg Rush or the fact that there is a greater number of fists to punch things with. There’s also more pragmatic edge. In a team this large, if something goes wrong, one of them is very likely to die. In a three-man team, that’s devastating. Take out two members and you no longer have a team at all. In an eight-man team losing that many still means over half the team is coming home. If things go truly bottoms up Team Seven style, no amount of average Genin were ever coming out alive. Laying all the chips down on the hope that if the dice rolls against you, you'll get _something_ back is an interesting cultural stance.

The society that gives rise to an eight-man Genin team is fascinating and I wish it was explored more.


End file.
